Drinking-glass holder and mount



Aug. 8, 1961 F. F. PAZZANO DRINKING-GLASS HOLDER AND MOUNT Filed Nov. 28, 1958 Stes This invention relates to accessory devices for holding liquid receptacles such as drinking glasses. More particularly it aims to provide such a holder especially adapted for easily removable mounting on more or less vertical post members such as the uprights of porch and lawn furniture of the current tubular metal frame type.

In supplying such holder the invention has as an important object to furnish a simple and inexpensive two-part device comprising a glass holder and a mounting bracket therefor and to afford in such device the capacity for quick selective relative adjustment of the two parts so as to present the holder in proper relation to the horizontal for retaining a drinking glass in substantially level position regardless of variation from the vertical in the chair post or other more or less upright furniture member on which the device is to be detachably mounted.

In the drawings illustrating by way of example one embodiment of a furniture-accessory holder device of the invention:

FIG. 1 shows such device installed on a chair post having a normal substantially true vertical disposition;

FIG. 2 shows the same device on a slanted chair post;

FIG. 3 shows the detachable bracket or clamp part of the two-part device separately;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a preferred form of attaching clamp; and

FIG. 5 is a vertical section on line 55 of FIG. 4.

Considering the drawings in further detail the device as a whole comprises two main and separable parts, namely a clip-on clamp or bracket indicated generally at 4- and a holder designated generally at '14. In this assembly or device the stated two main elements 4 and 14 are correlated for different selective positions of adjustment relative to each other and to the axis of a supporting upright such as a post P of a chair, table or other piece of furniture.

The clamping bracket 4 is stamped, molded or otherwise formed to provide a tubular sleeve-like divided spring collar 5 having at the adjoined vertical edges flared wings 6, 6 defining a guide mouth 7 for lateral entrance of an upright or post such as P on which it is to be mounted. Such bracket 4 may be made in different sizes and cross-sectional shapes, circular or otherwise, as appropriate to the point of use. Being especially suitable -for installing on the current tubular-metal type of porch, lawn and like furniture, wherein the uprights are generally standardized to a few sizes and shapes of tubing, the bracket collar 5 as illustrated is shaped and dimensioned for clamping fit on such furniture posts.

At a portion spaced from and preferably directly opposite the mouth 7 the collar 5 of the bracket 4 presents holder-mounting socket means comprising vertically spaced laterally projecting portions for operative positioning of the holder 14 with the socket-entering connector leg 15 thereof in different selective angular relation to the axis of the collar 5 according to the location of said axis with respect to the vertical when the device is installed in a given use position.

In the example of FIGS. 1 to 3 such holder-mounting socket means is of strip formation and comprises an upper arm 8 and a lower arm ltl, these being superposed in vertically spaced relation in a common vertical plane paralleling the axis of the collar 5. The lower and usually shorter arm .10 is substantially perpendicular to the collar axis. It is provided with one or more receiving and Patented Aug. 8, 1961 positioning apertures 11a, 11b spaced radially of the collar. The upper arm 8 is of somewhat greater radially projective extent and is preferably somewhat turned downwardly toward the lower arm 10. The collar 5 serves both as demountable attaching means for the device as a whole and as vertical spacing and connector means for the arm pair 8, lil, which in the example of FIGS. 1 to 3 are free at the outer ends.

The upper arm 8 likewise is formed with receiving and positioning apertures spaced radially from the collar axis. In the illustrated example there is a series of four such upper apertures 9a, 9b, 9c and 9d. As will be apparent particularly from inspection of FIG. 3 the plurality of apertures 9a to 9d of the upper arm and the one or more apertures 11a, 11b of the lower arm are so spaced along the respective arms and relative to the collar axis and to the apertures of the other arm that a pair of apertures, one in the upper arm and one in the lower arm are located substantially in vertical alignment, for appropriate selective positioning of the glass holder element 14 regardless of inclination of the collar axis within the range of angularity likely to be met in use.

Such holder proper 14 has at or near one end the mentioned vertical connector leg 15 of a shape, size and length to be entered downwardly through selected apertures of the collar arms 8 and 10. Where the bracket apertures such as 9a to 9d and 11a, 11b are circular or substantially so, as shown, the holder leg 15 is of like cross-sectional shape and is adapted to serve as a vertical pivot as well as a positioner for the holder 14. In other instances the leg and receiving apertures may be other wise conformantly shaped and may be without relative swivelling capacity. In the example shown the holder 14 is an integral bent and coiled wire structure including a horizontal extension 16 of the vertical connector leg 15 and a coiled cylindrical receiver 17 of a diameter and height to receive and hold a liquid receptacle such as a drinking glass G; the term glass includes any flatbottomed cup or tumbler-like receptacle.

In the intended supporting furniture, such for example as the tubular-metal-frame chairs of FIGS. 1 and 2, the from posts such as P are sometimes normally in the true vertical as in FIG. 1 or they may be inclined in one or another direction, as for example downwardly and rearwardly as in FIG. 2, or the inclination may be the opposite, i.e. down and forward. The device of the invention is adapted for mounting on such post regardless of the relation of the axis thereof to the vertical, within a substantial range of inclination. In use with the bracket 4 installed on the generally upright post, it is needed merely to select a then vertically aligned pair of apertures of the upper and lower collar arms 8 and 10 and to insert the holder leg 15 therein.

In FIG. 3 the bracket 4 is shown in what may be regarded as an extreme of inclination, at even more of an angle to the vertical than for example in FIG. 2. In such outward tilted position the user can quickly select a vertically opposed pair of upper and lower openings then appropriate for use as the socket means to receive the holder leg 15 so as to present the holder extension 16 and glass receiver 17 in desired horizontal position. In this instance, for example, the first aperture 9a of the upper arm 8 and the second aperture 11b of the lower arm 10 may become appropriate for use, as indicated by the interrupted line marked V".

Other selective adjustments, for different mounted positions of the bracket 4 relative to the vertical also are indicated on FIG. 3. For example, with the bracket itself in substantially true vertical position as on a vertical chair post P as in FIG. 1, an appropriate aperture pair then in vertical socket-presenting correlation for receiving the holder leg 15 would be the two innermost apertures 9a and 11a of the upper and lower arms 8, 10 respectively, as indicated by the broken line marked V. Or assuming the bracket to be tilted with the top inward, oppositely to the position of FIG. 3, as when installed on a chair having a leg post inclined oppositely to that of post P of FIG. 2, so that the top of the bracket is tipped to the left in the views, then an appropriate aperture pair for selective use may be an outer aperture of the upper arm 8, as for example the outermost aperture 9d and whichever aperture 11a or 1112 of the lower arm 10 is found better suited for the given angle of inclination, the holder leg position relative to the collar then being such as indicated by the broken line marked V In the further and generally preferred embodiment of FIGS. 4 and parts corresponding to those of FIGS. 1 to 3 are given the same reference numerals plus twenty digits. The holder element 14 may be as in the preceding figures. Here the clamping bracket 24 comprises the collar 25 with wings 26, 26, defining the guide mouth 27 for lateral entrance of an upright on which the device is to be installed.

In the instance of FIGS. 4 and 5 the upper arm 28 and the lower arm 30 of the socket means are joined at their outer portions by integral strip material as at 32.

As in FIGS. 1 to 3 either arm may be of the same sheet material as the collar. Preferably, and as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the vertically opposed arms 28 and 30 are formed of a single separate piece of strip material bent to present the two arms of the relative lengths to function similarly as in FIGS. 1 to 3. The inner ends of the arms 28 and 30 are turned at approximate right angles in one or the opposite direction, to provide attaching ears 28x, 30x for union with the collar 25. As illustrated the latter has at the top and bottom, opposite the collar mouth 27, seats or tabs x, 25x against which the arm ears 28x and 301: respectively are abutted and fixedly secured as by spot welding, brazing or the like. As in the preceding example the upper arm 28 of greater projective extent has a series of holder-leg-receiving apertures 29a, 29b, 29c, 29d at determined different radial distances from the collar and correlated with one or more similar apertures 31a, 31b in the lower arm 34).

From the description in connection with the drawings it will be seen that in the illustrative examples the clamping bracket element 4 or 24 of the device is equipped with holder-receiving socket means presented by laterally projecting vertically spaced upper and lower arms in which the upper arm has a spanning or overhanging relation to the lower arm. The arms of this pair are related in the general manner of transversals, either chords or arcs thereon across a sector area, the sides of which sector are defined by the Wall of collar 5 or 25 and by a slanting line such as dotted at S in FIGS. 3 and S joining the outer portions of the two arms, the origin center of the sector being below the lower arm.

Thus the socket-defining arm means is adapted to receive the holder leg 15 in various different selective positions within such sector area and in the various angular relations relative to the axis of the collar 5 or 25 as apropriate to dispose the holder 14 in glass-levelling setting of the glass-receiver 17 thereof, over a substantial range of incluination of the collar axis from the true vertical.

The invention as disclosed provides a simple, inexpensive and easily installable device for holding a receptacle such as a drinking glass in desired content-levelling position upon a supporting post such as a furniture part, with capacity in the device to adapt itself to such mounting over a substantial range of inclination of the axis of support from the vertical.

My invention is not limited to the particular embodiments thereof illustrated and described herein, and I set forth its scope in my following claim:

A furniture-accessory device for holding a drinking glass upon upright posts as of tubular metal furniture wherein the posts have a substantial range of axial inclination from and including the true vertical, comprising a unitary removable holder having a depending vertical connector leg and a horizontal extension with a cylindrical glass-receiver offset from the leg, an automatic selfclamping bracket of spring sheet material having a vertically divided collar adapted to embrace and be held fixed on a furniture upright, the divided vertical edges of the colar defining a guiding mouth for lateral entrance of such upright, the collar having opposite said mouth socket means comprising upper and lower lateral arm members projecting radially and fixedly directly from the collar in vertically spaced superposition relative to each other, the lower arm member being substantially perpendicular to the axis of the collar and having at least one leg-receiving aperture radially offset from the collar, the upper arm member being of greater radial projective extent and having a plurality of leg-receiving apertures at determined different radial distances from the axis of the collar, said upper and lower apertures being correlated for different supported positions of the collar axis relative to the vertical including the true vertical position and a substantial range of positions of inclination of the collar axis in one or the opposite direction in a vertical plane through the bracket arm members so that the latter selectively present a pair of upper and lower apertures in appropriate vertically opposed registering relation such that the holder leg selectively entered therein disposes the holder in an appropriately horizontal glass-receiving setting for the glass-receiver thereof so as to hold a received glass substantially erect under any such different supported vertical axial positions of the collar.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 548,422 Beardsley Oct. 22, 1895 1,310,234 Denning July 15, 1919 1,786,995 Halberstadter Dec. 30, 1930 1,828,851 Smith Oct. 27, 1931 2,919,096 Cohen Dec. 29, 1959 

